She frowned, trying to figure out if they hadn't been born yet, could they have really died?  It was an exercise in Einsteinian relativity that she wasn't sure she really wanted to solve.  It was simpler to think of all of them as waiting for her.

     But she knew what was going to happen to these people, ones she was going to wind up spending time with.  How could she be here and not try to change the future- or was that her past?  She sighed, half expecting to see Ziggy popping through an open time portal any second.

     It wasn't going to happen.  "I'm not going to go back," she said out loud with a certainty that was hard to explain.  She was stuck here.

     And that left her with a moral dilemma... should she try to change everything?  Try to save over fifty thousand mutants from dying in the next three years?  Many, many more being forced to sell their souls to the Hellfire club?  Focusing on the what-next helped to get past her pain.

     Thank goodness, in this time line at least, her stepfather was around.  Maybe Cable could offer some suggestions on what she could do.  At least, she thought bitterly, there were two other people around who knew how she felt.

     She pushed herself off the bed, found the running shoes that Emma had provided for her, and tied them.  Taking a run always helped her clear her head.

**
     Sam saw Rahne nearly sleepwalk into the room and smiled.  Rahne wasn't what most people would call a morning person by any means.   And he had learned the hard way about getting on the bad side of a woman who could turn into an animal when given the least provocation.

     He watched as Rahne poured what seemed to be half a cup of sugar into her cup, added a tea bag and boiling water.  She stomped the kitchen, looking for the makings of a decent meal.  Taking a cue from her wolven state, that usually included bacon, eggs, and sausage.  Once she found them, she quickly cooked her food.

     Sam waited until she started to eat to ask her, "What was that phone call about?"

     Rahne looked at him- straight through him.  "A dinner know that A had tae tell ye everything that went on in me life!"

     Sam stepped back, sensing that this was a bad time to ask.  "You just seemed a little upset last night."

     Rahne slammed her fork down.  "A am not upset!"  Taking two steps away from her, Sam looked at her.  "Get that look off of yuir face!"

     "Rahne!" Sam said sharply, "What is the matter?"

     "Craig died, okay!" she snapped, overfilling her tea cup with orange juice.  With a curse, she went to mop it up.

         "Couldn't have happened to a better person," Sam said quietly as he handed her a damp sponge.

     That really set Rahne off.  "Just leave- leave me alone-" Angrily, she knocked over her tea cup.  "Now look at what ye made me do!"

     Not knowing what was really the matter here, Sam looked at the broken tea cup and quickly got another sponge.  Speaking calmly while he cleaned up the mess, he tried to reassure her that it wasn't that bad.

     It wasn't the words that got to Rahne, or the actions.  It was the sense of deja vu that started her to crying.  "A-A..." she sobbed.

     Sam dropped the sponge and held her.  "It's okay, Rahne," he whispered over and over again.  She leaned into him for a moment and relaxed.

     It lasted for a moment and then she stiffened back up.  "A'm sorry," she spat out.

     Sam pulled her closer to him.  "I'm here when you want to talk about it."  She quickly bolted out of the room.

     Sam quietly cleaned up the kitchen, a sense of unease growing in him.  What was in that call that upset her so much?

 **

     "It's nothing," Celeste protested as she walked out.  "A small cold, that's all."  She sneezed again, trying to be more discreet.  She always got sick when she was stressed.

     Tony offered her some of the herbal cold remedy he'd been carrying around for his own cold.  "Try this."

     She brushed it off, not wanting to take anything.  "I'm fine, it's just a head cold."

     "And who suffers?"  Tony waved at Li'l Bit who was standing on the porch as planned.  "Next week, we're going to be in Chicago-"

     "I'm not going to the convention," Celeste reminded him, feeling the tears in her eyes. "Besides, who knows what's in that package?"

     "It's safe, just like eating a salad and drinking a cup of orange juice."  Tony tried to convince her.

     "Yeah, like you and putt-putt golf is a safe combination?"  Celeste, despite the day, started to giggle at the memory.  Tony came as close to blushing as anybody could with his skin color.

     Li'l Bit laughed, drawing attention to herself standing at the door.  Hobbling in, she grabbed ahold of the other woman's left hand and examined it.  "He's bein' cheap with ya, ya do know that, doncha?  Ya should have at least a diamond on this hand."

     The three sixty that the comment invoked left the other two dazed for a moment, so Li'l Bit continued, "Or are ya two shackin' up?  'Cause the way y'all carry on is like a married couple."

     After a long moment, a very red Celeste answered, "He's my best friend...  Bickering comes with the territory."

     Li'l Bit lifted a doubting eyebrow as if to question that assumption.  In her friendship with Sam, they never really sent off sparks like those did.  "If ya say so," she offered.  "Anyway, Celeste, Ah know we don't really know each other but we need ta talk -your sister is trouble."

     "What did she do now?"  Celeste dropped the package of pills Tony handed her and started out the door.

     "Ah said she's trouble, not that she's in trouble."  Li'l Bit blocked the door, preventing Celeste from leaving the room.  According to the plan, Tony sat down  on one side of the table, leaving the head for his friend and the other side for the singer.  "We need ta have a talk about her."

     Sensing that this was prearranged, the older woman started to get angry.  "What do you two know about Ariel?  Really know?"  The mantra that Celeste had been using lately came out in her words.  "Ariel's been through a lot.  Emma was wrong to kick her out of the school."

     "First of all," Tony started, "Ariel has been through a lot, yes.  Her coping skills have been taxed beyond her limits... but you can't buy into she's not really into trouble, can you?"

     "I can straighten her out!"  Celeste flopped herself into the chair.  "It's my fault she's like this!"

     "It's Ariel's fault," Li'l Bit objected.  "Look, Sam's a friend of mine and he's worried enough about you.  He doesn't think ya are handling the situation well."

     "And you would know better?"  That was difficult to believe.

     Tony shook his head.  "We might be able to help you."  Sighing, he tried to explain to his best friend in the world what was happening.  "This is an intervention, baby.  An attempt to get you to open your eyes and find a better way to help your sister."

     Celeste buried her head in her hands, her fingers over her ears, attempting to block them out.  But she was so tired of the pain, the hurt, the feelings of failure-in short everything that had happened between her sister and her in the past couple of months.  "What makes you think that you can help?" she challenged them.

     "Muh mother is a user, in every sense of the word," Li'l Bit explained.  "And I'm recoverin' from my own battle with eatin' disorders.  Ah say that gives me some insight inta you and your sis.  At least, I can understand what yer goin' through and a little of what your sister is too."

     Tony added his part, "You know I'm a recovering alcoholic."

     "Ariel isn't---"

     "Let's pretend she is," Tony suggested.  "Let's pretend her problem is tied into those bottles you find in weird places, all the gum and mouthwash she uses, the eyedrops you found in the washing machine, her declining grades and hanging out with a new crowd."

     Celeste nodded, an internal war going on.  "What can I do to straighten her out?"

     "It wasn't anything anybody else did that got me to stop drinking.  Nobody can stop an addict," he reminded her.

     "What did?"  The question came from Li'l Bit, who was playing the innocent blonde to steer the conversation.

     Tony closed his eyes so tightly that he saw stars.  "I hit a woman...  broke her nose."  Stunned, Celeste said nothing to him.  "At that moment, I saw who I was-my mother's boyfriend.   He'd beat us, all three of us senseless.  And then, after my mom hit the floor, he'd take a long drink out of the glass beer bottle, throw it against the wall, and make me help her stand so he could beat her again.  My idea of hell was being him, and thanks to my actions, I was."

     Celeste squeezed his hand and let him continue.  Pausing, Tony decided to remove any doubts as to what a self-centered bastard had been when he was drinking.  "I slept with Domino, Pete, and Silver while too drunk to remember the details-and while telling Torres she was the only woman for me.  I drove my car, not caring that I could have killed somebody.  I hurt people, jumped to the wrong conclusions, made Angelo afraid that I would kill him, and made Torres afraid to allow me to know my own children.  I just didn't care.  And I can't make it fully up to them...  At one time Angelo was as close to me as a brother."

     "It wasn't your fault," one friend offered to another in attempt to explain his actions.  "You were drunk."

     "All of that is my fault because I was drunk."  Tony removed his hand from Celeste's comforting grip.  "It was my choice to do what I did."

     "Ariel is not an alcoholic...  she just needs extra attention.   She'll get on the straight and narrow if I'm around more."  Celeste wasn't so deep in denial that she couldn't see the pitifulness of her statement.  She made a slight face.

     Surprised at the utter stupidity of that statement, he moved himself away from her.   "She's beyond the point of needing extra attention, if she ever did."  Calming down a little, he commented, "You sound like Forrest did for a year after I took him in.  He thought all I needed was less stress and things would be perfect.  And both of you don't care about personal responsibility."

     That comment was directed straight at the center of Celeste's being, and deliberately so.  She believed in being accountable, and if anything held herself too accountable.  "And what happens to me if I move back and let her take responsibility for her actions?  What if I lose the only real family I have left?"

     "What happens if ya let her stay the way she is?"  Li'l Bit took over.

     The doubt was plain in Celeste's voice.  "She'll get better...."

     Li'l Bit shook her head.  "Not unless you do something ta help her.  What Tony tried ta tell ya is that she don't care---"

     "Ariel is a troublemaker, not an addict..."

     Smoothly, Li'l Bit continued as if she never heard that comment.  "about you.  She stays out all hours of the night, never callin', never explainin'.  She runs away, throws tantrums-she needs help."

     "And I'll be right here to help her."  Celeste stopped and remembered, "Or someplace else, with a more sane job..." Pausing again, she remembered her work with Emma's Mutant Underground and the deep satisfaction she found there.  Not only with that but with her day-to-day life.  "I can't just throw Ariel out because it makes life easier for me, can I?"

     This time, Li'l Bit paused.  "There are places that work with teens like Ariel and help them to get better.  Trust me, it's kinder ta send her away for specialized help than ta let her rule your life."

     "You sound like you know that from personal experience..." Celeste turned to her, eager to hear what the other woman knew.

     "Ah do," Li'l Bit sighed and mentally sorted though the painful information she had acquired.  "As a recovering anorexic, I can tell you this.  Ariel doesn't think about you the same way you think about her.  Some part of her may love you, but she's caught up in her troubles.  She doesn't love herself, Celeste-her actions show you that.  Don't they?"

     Celeste nodded, finally moving past the point of regret and self-incrimination.  As if a light bulb went on in her mind, she could see the fact that Ariel didn't love herself.  And she couldn't make her sister do that.  Self-love was something that came from the inside.  "I guess they do.  But sending her away is harsh..."

     "Ah lived with a mother like that.  She made my life hell, and the first thing Ah did when Ah could was leave.  It's easier ta love her away from her.  Ah've never stopped lovin' her."  Li'l Bit tried to answer the unspoken feeling before addressing the spoken thought.  "And it's not harsh at all ta get her ta help."

      "I don't want to lose all my family..." As much as she loved the teenagers at the school, they weren't kin.  And after losing literally every other blood relative that she cared about, Celeste held firmly on to the one she had left.

     "Is it better ta love a livin' sister who hates ya or ta mourn yer dead sister?"

     At that comment, Celeste pushed herself away from the table.  Walking over to the window, she watched as birds land at her bird feeder for a couple of minutes, allowing that to be the only thing running around her brain.  Walls came shattering down in her heart, and a decision was reached there, where it belonged.  For once, her heart and her brain were in complete agreement about this.  "This school, what does Ariel need to bring to it?" She asked without turning around.

     "White socks, white undergarments, and a pair of running shoes," Tony read from the list.  "Everything else will be given to her when she gets there."

     "I think it will make more of a statement if everything else of hers was packed up and was gone," The voice was bitter, broken.  "Do you think..."

     Tony walked over and laid a hand on her shoulder.  "We'll get it done.  All of Ariel's true friends will help her."

     Two warm tears hit his hand as she laid her head against it.  "Could you get it done?  I need to do this fast or I'll lose my nerve."

     He wrapped his other arm around her, pulling her against him.  She leaned back and took comfort in the support he offered her.  Li'l Bit got up, moving silent.  "Friends my fanny!" she whispered as she left the room.

**
     Sean was a morning person.  Not just a happy to be alive morning person, but the type that would stretch and sing and watch Riverdance, before six am.  Life was just too wonderful to be asleep.

     Terry was the polar opposite.  Life was meant to be lived at night, when anything could and did happen.  She loved the moonlight, starlight, and city lights.  Which was why Sean was surprised to see Terry up at the crack of dawn, holding on to a cup of coffee like it was a lifeline.

     Not sure what to say, he sat down across the table from her and poured himself a cup of coffee.  She looked up.  "Aren't you going to even ask?"

     He shrugged.  "About what?  Berto and Tabitha fighting like cats and dogs?  The little girl running around with Shatterstar?  Or what's got you up so early?"  He shrugged.  "I figured they were related somehow.

     Terry took another sip of her coffee and winced.  "Don't you have any cream or anything?"  She held onto the cup tightly.  Sean got up and found the instant creamer for her.

     "Mission go bad?" he asked her compassionately as he saw the half written report in front of her.

     Terry nodded.  "Cable has us do so much paperwork, it's not funny."

     Sean smiled.  "I used to hate it when I was on the force.  There was a form to fill out to get toilet paper, but more times than not, it ended up as the toilet paper.."  She smiled at that.

     "This is a tough one," Terry explained.  "We were sent to the future, met our kids, um... that little girl?"  She waited for Sean to nod, "She's the daughter of Shatterstar and Domino."  He winced.  "And we lost a team member... that's terrible, that I mention Joseph's death last... but I think, I think..." She started to cry, tears running down her face.

     Sean held her and rocked her.  "It's never easy when a teammate dies...."

     "He died to save his granddaughter..." Terry explained through her tears.  "And she... she said..."  She was sobbing this time.  "She said .... it was better this way... that his death had meaning..."

     "If I had a choice," Sean tried to explain, "I'd like to go that way, saving another's life."  He waited for the crying to calm down.  "Have you called Cable and Domino yet?"

     Terry shook her head and tossed down the paper napkin she had squeezed into a tight wad.  "How do you explain this?"

     Sean sat back and tried to help her come up with the words.  After a long minute, he said simply, "In person."

     "I need a drink!"  Terry exclaimed as she got up.  Sean glanced sharply at her.  "I'm not going to have one, but I need one..." she trailed off.  "And it's not like I can go to AA with this problem."

     "I don't know," Sean started.

     "What?" she asked him, "Wait until the mutant AA meets and try to explain this mess to them?"  Sarcasm was deep in her voice.

     "The Avengers are on a mission, but Brian could understand..." he started.  Terry shook her head.  It was hard to explain, but she didn't like the other man.  Not enough to talk to him about this at least.  "I know of someone else you could talk to, maybe...."

     "Who?" Terry asked.

     "He works for Emma..." Sean started.  "He's open about the fact he had a drinking problem, and he's been around us for a long time- Tony Longhair."

     At least, Terry thought with a grin, she didn't dislike him.  "Maybe," she offered.  "But, judging from what you've told me, he's busy today."

     Sean shrugged.  "He won't be tomorrow then... maybe you should call Brian.  Might do you some good in the meantime."  He was quietly frantic, trying to convince her to stay put.  Away from anything that she might regret.

     "After I call Cable," she agreed.  "Because when Domino finds out..."

     "Stuff is going to hit the fan," Sean nodded as he laid a comforting hand on her back.

**
     Rahne handed Celeste some flat boxes from the storage shed and sighed.  Both women looked so worn, as if, in the one day, they had lived a lifetime.  Celeste caught the troubled look in her friend's eye.  "What happened?"

     Rahne sighed and looked at her friend as they made their way back to Celeste's home.  "Sam and I got into a huge fight this morning..."  She sighed again, a long, soft sigh that said more than her words before kicking the boxes that had been banging against her legs.

     Despite the situation, Celeste asked "Need to talk about it?"

     Rahne shook her head, unwilling to unload her problems on her friend when it should be the other way around.   "When you've calmed down...  This is enough for anybody."

     Celeste opened the door and nodded.  Inside, organized chaos reigned as Jubilee, Ev, Skin, Sam, Forrest  and Tony packed up Ariel's belonging. Mike was leading a music class for Paige, Monet, and Jono to help keep the news of Ariel's leaving quiet for a while.  A small black and white tote bag sat in a chair by the open door, holding the white undergarments and shoes Ariel would need when she got to the school.  Everything else, including hygiene items, would be provided when Ariel arrived at the treatment center that evening.  Emma was still in the main house, pulling all the strings needed to arrange everything in time.

     Jubilee led the parade, identifying what was Ariel's or what Ariel would borrow.  Tony and Forrest would carefully comb through the items, searching in hiding spots that Celeste wouldn't have dreamed of, for drugs and alcohol.  A trash bag held what they had discovered so far.  Angelo, currently working in the kitchen, had started looking in the more common areas for the same items.  Celeste remembered that Forrest and Angelo had been around when Tony had been drinking, and would know better than anybody else where to look.

     Ev and Sam had started to take apart Ariel's bed.  The mattresses sat on one side of the room, the head board in another.  "Berto and Tabs said that they would help in a minute," Sam explained.  "And considering' how strong he is, Ah didn't see any point in moving the stuff by myself."

     Rahne had started to pack Ariel's books and personal belongings, while Celeste had started to sort through her sister's clothing.  A small stack of 'borrowed' clothes sat in the middle of the closet.  The message would be clear in an hour or so.  Ariel wasn't welcome at her sister's house while she was using any type of controlled substance.

***

     In spite of her promise to sit still and rest, Li'l Bit started to hobble around the house, attempting to fight the sheer boredom that threatened her.  A loud, continually changing noise that sounded like someone recorded the skinning of live cats and tried to make a tune out of it caught her attention.  She investigated and discovered Jono playing the guitar, solving the mystery of the missing student.
Goth not your thing? she felt a 'voice' in her head asking.

     Slightly confused, Li'l Bit replied truthfully, "Not in the least."

     A human covered with dark bandages looked her up and down.  Didn't think so.

     "Never been a fan of the Grateful Undead stuff," she admitted as she curled up next to him.  "But you do know your way around a guitar." Deliberately, she softened her accent as she watched him play.  Emma had mentioned that Jono was anti-social and bitter, except when he was talking about his music.  It had been Emma's hope to reach Jono by offering the class.

 He nodded and started to play an old Hank Williams, Sr. song. There's a tear in my beer 'cause you're not here.

     Li'l Bit smiled and started to sing the song, not letting on that she knew that he was trying to mock her.  Suddenly, he shifted to another song, something she hadn't heard before.  "That's good," she complimented him.

    Something I wrote, he told her, a small smile in his eyes. Doesn't have any words yet.

     Li'l Bit had received a couple of awards, including a Grammy, for her ability to write lyrics.  In her industry, she was more widely regarded for this talent than for her singing ability.  "Maybe I can help?" she offered.

     Caught in the act of being human, Jono growled, Don't need any help from a brainless piece of fluff.

     "Well excuse me!"  Li'l Bit snapped back.  She had been barked at by bigger dogs and knew how to handle them.  She started to leave.

     I'm sorry, he started to apologize when he realized she had small tears in her eyes.  It's just a special song, and a special gal...

     She waited a second for the victorious grin to fade before turning towards him.  "Who's the girl?" she asked, expecting it to be Paige.

     Ariel, he answered.  It's a surprise for her, something I've worked hard on for a long time.

     Curling back on the bed, Li'l Bit answered with what she thought was common knowledge.  "We've got to work fast-she's going to a treatment center today."

     A loud, telepathic WOT?!? that echoed across the school grounds was his answer as he stormed out the door.

     "Oh boy," Li'l Bit whispered as she jumped off the bed to follow him.

**

     The resounding shout made everybody in the cottage jump but the door being blown down made them scramble.  Berto, Tabitha, Sam and Rahne formed the front line, almost instinctively.  Jubilee stood behind them but in front of Ev and Angelo.  Tony quickly moved himself in a position that he was half sheltering Forrest and Celeste, the latter whom started to slide along the wall to push the panic button.

     The front line stepped down a little when they saw it was Jono, but quickly went to full alert when Li'l Bit announced, a little redundantly, "He's pissed."

     What is this? Jono demanded as he surveyed the room.

     Celeste took a step in front of Tony and explained as calmly as she could, "Ariel is leaving.  She needs more help than I can give her."

    She needs your time--

     "I've given her my time, my money... I 've made sure she doesn't get arrested and ruin her life..."  Celeste saw the garbage bag that Tony had dropped in his rush to protect her and Forrest.  Picking it up, she held it as she continued, "She's already started down that path."

     Wot Ariel needed was your attention, your love.  She doesn't need to be sent away.  A mental image flashed in Jono's mind, the first time he and Ariel had talked.  It was about the time that Jubilee had given up on her friend, and he had found Ariel in the old barn, hanging a rope from the hayloft.  That talk had taken hours, but in Ariel he had found somebody he could trust and relate to.  She was a hurt child in teenager's clothing, and Celeste's neglect had made things so much worse. Just your time, your  love.  No bitching, no treating her like she's already gone and thrown her life away.

     "Excuse me if I don't know how to treat Ariel," Celeste defended herself, knowing he was just saying what she felt.  "I was eighteen and she was eight.  I was the only one that would have taken her in...  When I was her age, I knew how to get by without attention.  I was a working adult before I was in middle school."  She was talking about the long hours in front of the camera she pulled, rushing from stage to school to stage, somehow squeezing in homework, learning her lines, and sleep in a twenty-four hour period.
 
    And look at you now-mother of the year. Jono started to sarcastically clap.  Rahne moved in to defend her friend, but Celeste waved her hand.  It was important to her that she not think of Nina at the moment.

     Unfortunately, that was exactly what Tony thought of.  "If we were in another place, I'd show you who I am!" he threatened.

     Wot?  A self-delusional creep who sells drugs to kids? Jono shot back.

     Angelo, for reasons he didn't understand, tried to defend the leader of the Network.  "He may a rat, but he's a trapped rat," he corrected Jono.

     Forrest, in a rare show of anger, slammed Angelo into the suddenly stone wall before demanding an answer from the now-stunned former gangbanger, "How can you say that about him?  He never once let on that Torres's twins were his, not yours!"

 Like spectators at a tennis match, Sam, Jubilee and Ev started watching the confrontations that were running counterpoint to each other.  Tony solemnly nodded in    answer to the question in Angelo's eyes as Celeste announced, "Then you will be pleased to know that after Ariel's better, she'll go to her Godfather's."

     "A parent is the person that loves the children, not a wreck that can barely take care of themselves, " Tony gently explained to Angelo.  "You were the one that knew them and loved them, not me.  Not until it was too late to do anything about the girls...  I wasn't nearly ready to be a parent until after they died in the firebomb."

     Jono took out a sheet of paper that he carried next to his heart and crumbled it up.  I can throw out trash too...  With that, he walked out of the hole in the wall.

     Rahne ran to pick it up, more than slightly curious about what was on the page.  She turned it over and discovered, to her shock, that it was a suicide note that Ariel had penned a couple of months ago.

     "I'm sorry," Tony offered Angelo, who was trying not to cry.  "Torres used both of us- me to get to where she wanted, you to take care of her children."  Angelo stormed into the bathroom and locked the door.

     At that moment, Tabitha decided to confront Celeste about her neglecting her sister.  "I grew up in a house where I didn't count... what you've done to you sister is criminal."

     "And what gives you the right to tell me how to raise my sister?"   Celeste shouted at the noisy woman.

     "Somebody needs to!"  For the second time in as many days, Celeste slapped somebody.  Unfortunately for her, Tabitha responded with her own mutant power.    The next thing she knew, Celeste was in the pond.

     Sam had followed her out the door and the twenty feet that she flew.  "What happened?"  Celeste asked softly.

     "You hit a woman who makes bombs," Sam explained as he helped her up.

     "One of those..." she trailed off.  "Figures."

**

     Emma set the phone down in the cradle and sighed.  Thanks to a generous contribution to the treatment center, Ariel had a bed and the undivided attention of the staff.  After Ariel left the center, the legal paperwork had been started to transfer custody of Ariel to Jonah.  A school in New York that specialized in helping recovering teen addicts catch up would hold a spot for her after she left the school.  And the movers would come tomorrow to take Ariel's belongings to her new home.  It had been a busy couple of hours.

     Jono's 'scream' had forced her to mentally scan the school, and much to her surprise, Jono was showing anger, and protectiveness... and acting like a fool in love.  She listened in on the confrontation in the cottage, and followed him back to the school.  She didn't like the feel of the situation, and a telepathic touch revealed that Jono had found a way to block her interference.  Drawing on his anger, his powers went to new heights as he managed to force his way into the room where Ariel was being held and take the two of them out of the mansion before the security system could stop them.

     Surprised, Emma telepathically alerted everybody on campus.  Why was it that everything went to pot before breakfast, she wondered with a sigh.  Settling down for what she knew would be a long day, she took a sip of her coffee.